Winners and losers of the KL-S'pore HSR link

Various proponents of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) link are keen to emphasise that this project is not just about transportation.

In fact, as Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) chief executive officer Mohd Nur Kamal says, there is more than one way to travel between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Rather, he says this link is a business and an investment opportunity. One that will help generate business that might not have happened without it.

HSR links have, in the past, tended to draw investments into the more developed cities on the line rather than spreading it out to the various cities along the line.

This is a genuine concern for Malaysia, as we are likely to have up to five stations on the line. The last thing we can afford is to spend tens of billions of ringgit and then to not make any gain from it.

Economists suggest that there will be opportunities for gains from this project, both during the building of the rail, and more importantly, upon its completion.

It will be imperative for the logistics of this link and the potential development of these sectors to be taken into consideration from the get-go.